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The Little Mermaid III: Ariel's Beginning
The Little Mermaid: Ariel's Beginning is a 2008 animated fantasy feature film, and the direct-to-video prequel to Disney's 1989 film The Little Mermaid. Directed by Peggy Holmes, the film's story is set before the events of the 1989 film and the 2000 sequel, where all music has been banned from the underwater kingdom of Atlantica by King Triton, and his youngest daughter Ariel attempts to challenge this law. The film features the voices of Jodi Benson, Samuel E. Wright, Sally Field and Jim Cummings. Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment released the film on August 26, 2008. The film contradicts certain events of the television series, implying that it is an independent installment of Disney's The Little Mermaid franchise. Plot King Triton and his wife, Queen Athena, rule over the underwater kingdom of Atlantica, which is filled with music and laughter. They have seven young daughters, the youngest of whom is Ariel. One day, the merfolk relax in a lagoon above water, and Triton gives Athena a music box. However, a pirate ship approaches. Everyone escapes except Athena, who is killed by the ship when she tries to rescue the music box. Devastated by the death of his wife, Triton throws the music box away, and bans music from the kingdom. Ten years later, Ariel and her six older sisters live under a strict routine maintained by their governess, Marina Del Rey and her assistant, Benjamin. Marina hates being the girls' governess and longs to be Triton's attaché, a job currently filled by Sebastian the crab. Ariel hates their current lifestyle, which brings her into arguments with her father. One day, Ariel encounters Flounder, a young fish whom she later follows to an underground music club. She is overjoyed by the presence of music, and is shocked when she sees Sebastian performing there. When her presence is revealed, the entire band stops playing and hides, believing Ariel will tell her father about them. Ariel sings a song explaining her love of music and the remembrance of her mother, and she joins the club with an oath. Ariel returns to the palace, and her sisters confront her over her disappearance. She explains where she was, and the following night all seven girls go to the club to have fun. Marina finds them, she later reports their activities to Triton, who destroys the club with his trident. Sebastian, Flounder and the band are sent to jail, while Marina gets the job as the king's majordomo. Triton locks his daughters inside the palace, resulting in Ariel asking him why music is forbidden, but he refuses to answer and angrily shouts, I will not have music in my kingdom! Distraught, Ariel argues that Athena wouldn't have wanted music forbidden, and swims to the bedroom, with her sisters following. That night, she leaves Atlantica, and frees the jailbirds. Sebastian leads them to a deserted place far from the palace where Ariel finds Athena's music box, as Sebastian hoped. Ariel and Sebastian decide to return to Atlantica to bring the music box to Triton, hoping that it will change his mind, as he has not remembered how to be happy after Athena's death. On the way back, they are confronted by Marina and her electric eels. Marina wants to stop them so she will retain her position of power, and struggle ensues. It ends when Marina barrels towards Sebastian, but Ariel pushes her away, getting hit in the process. Triton arrives in time to witness this, and blames himself. He sings the lyrics of Athena's Song, and Ariel wakes up. Triton restores music to Atlantica, and appoints Sebastian as Atlantica's first official court composer, much to everyone's glee. Everyone rejoices except Marina and Benjamin, who are sent to jail. Voice cast * Jodi Benson as Ariel * Samuel E. Wright as Sebastian * Jim Cummings as King Triton and Shelbow * Sally Field as Marina Del Rey * Parker Goris as Flounder * Tara Strong as Adella and Andrina * Jennifer Hale as Alana * Grey DeLisle as Aquata and Arista * Kari Wahlgren as Attina * Jeff Bennett as Benjamin the manatee and the Swordfish Guards * Lorelei Hill Butters as Queen Athena (sung by Andrea Robinson) * Rob Paulsen as Ink Spot the octopus and Swifty the shrimp * Kevin Michael Richardson as Cheeks the blowfish and Ray-Ray the manta ray * ADR loop group: Kirk Baily, Ranjani Brow, Kristen Combs, David Cowgill, Erin Donovan, Kerris Dorsey, Eddie Frierson, Spencer Lacey Ganus, Jackie Gonneau, Bridget Hoffman, Wendy Hoffman, Scott Menville, John Hans Tester, Ariel Winter, Karen Huie, Krista Swan & Carole Jeghers Songs * Athena's Song (performed by Andrea Robinson) * Just One Mistake (performed by Sally Field) * Jump in the Line (performed by Samuel E. Wright, Kevin Michael Richardson, Rob Paulsen, Jim Cummings, Alvin Chea, Oren Waters, Rick Logan and Chris Garcia (a cappella version performed by Samuel E. Wright, Jodi Benson, Parker Goris, Kevin Michael Richardson, Rob Paulsen, Jim Cummings, Alvin Chea, Randy Crenshaw, Oren Waters, Rick Logan and Chris Garcia)) * I Remember (performed by Jodi Benson) * Just One Mistake Reprise (performed by Sally Field) * I Will Sing (performed by Jeannette Bayardelle) Trivia * When Marina is on the surface, she makes two references to The Little Mermaid. First, she does the same move that Ariel does while singing Part of Your World Reprise. The second is that a seagull (most likely Scuttle) flies by. She says don't touch me as Scuttle had attacked Ursula and Morgana in the previous films. * Of all her daughters, Queen Athena is most closely resembled by Ariel. This is most obvious in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, roughly 23 years following the film's events, when Ariel has matured and become a mother herself. It is possible that the animators of Athena based her appearance on the mature version of Ariel. * Due to being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, Kenneth Mars was unable to reprise king Triton for this film. Mars later passed away three years later. * Last Disney direct-to-video film to date. One of the inquiries John Lasseter made after becoming CEO of both Disney and Pixar was for the studio that once worked on direct-to-video sequels to only work on spin-offs like the Tinker Bell franchise, which also cancelled some sequels that had already been underway like Dumbo II, The Jungle Book 3, The Aristocats II, Aladdin 4, Hercules 2 and Mulan III, in addition more Disney Princess Enchanted Tales Films. * Tara Strong, voice of Ariel's daughter Melody in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea, voices two of Ariel's sisters in this film. * Ink Spot and Swifty are voiced by Rob Paulsen, who previously filled in for Christopher Daniel Barnes as prince Eric in The Little Mermaid II: Return to the Sea. * The illegal music club that Sebastian performs at, The Catfish Club, is likely named in reference to The KitKat Club, from Cabaret. This reference is further emphasized during Sebastian's first number, when he is silhouetted, and appears to be wearing a foreword-cocked bowler hat; one of Cabaret director Bob Fosse's trademarks. Curiosities * This film is a prequel: it focuses on Ariel's childhood life before the first film. * We can appreciate how Ariel's relationship with her six older sisters is. * We can see the first meeting between Ariel and Flounder. * This movie is the latest sequel to the Disney classics. * In this film we meet Queen Athena, Ariel's mother, and we see her dying. * At the beginning of the movie, you could see that Ariel resembled her mother, queen Athena, except that she had green eyes and a blue mermaid tail. * It obtained in its first week in sales in the United States US 17.112.514 dollars. * It was placed as the movie number 1 on Billboard. * One of the extras is the Broadway musical of The Little Mermaid. * The film makes several references to the first film of The Little Mermaid (as a parody in some cases). * The film, in addition, reworks or contradicts events that had been seen in the TV series of The Little Mermaid, also located chronologically before the first film. Example: in the series it is said that Ariel met Flounder when she was 12 years old and here she knows him later. * This film has been used for ecological campaigns, for the protection of the sea and the oceans. * Ariel's new friends can be seen in the song Under the Sea from the first movie. * With this film, we understand king Triton's contempt for humans. * Marina del Rey is the new villain of the movie. Most fans of the saga thought it was Ursula. * Scuttle, Grimsby, Carlotta, Chef Louie, prince Eric or his daughter Melody does not appear in this film (chronologically the film happened long before these characters intervened in the saga). * At the end of the film, king Triton swears his loyalty to the music and the people who believe in it, for this he is required to raise his right hand, but by mistake the character raises his left hand. * When Marina del Rey finishes singing and says And who will know, Sebastian will make a mistake someday, moves a kind of water, knowing that she is under the sea, where obviously there is water. Goofs * Tara Strong is the voice of both Adella and Andrina. Adella has a more normal voice and Andrina has the funny one. At one time in the movie, where Ariel is back from the underground club and tells her sisters about it, you can hear Adella with the funny voice saying: Yeah me too and then you hear Andrina with a perfectly normal voice saying Not without me. They changed voices for a moment. * In 1992, Disney started TV series based on The Little Mermaid movie. In season 1, episode 11 called The Little Mermaid: The Evil Manta, Ariel rememberes how she first met Flounder, and the scene is quite different than the scene shown in this movie. In the series she met him when she was still a child, wearing pony tail. Flounder is left all alone and he gets scared from Ariel, but she quickly calms him down and become his friend. * All through out the movie Arista's bangs switch sides of her face between shoots. This goofs can be seen best after the subject of taking a friend past the kelp forest. * There appear to be now people on the pirate ship. * For the majority of the film, king Triton had outlawed singing in Atlantica. But Marina del Ray is heard singing a few times in the movie, especially in front of a delivery fish (who could've likely reported her). International releases For information about international dubs and releases, The Little Mermaid III: Ariel's Beginning/International. Category:2008 films Category:2000s American animated films Category:American musical films Category:Films produced by Kendra Halland Category:Films directed by Peggy Holmes Category:Disney Princess Category:American sequel films Category:Disney direct-to-video films Category:Direct-to-video sequel films Category:DisneyToons Studios animated films Category:Walt Disney Television Animation Category:Film scores by James Dooley Category:Toon City Animation